November 1, 2012 7:50 am

Minnesota Vikings defensive end Jared Allen, left, gets in a tussle with Tampa Bay Buccaneers tackle Donald Penn, right, during the second half of an NFL football game Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Andy King)

Ryan Divish of The News Tribune writes that the Seattle Seahawks would be wise to know where Minnesota defensive end Jared Allen is at all times. The 30-year-old has put together another strong year, with seven sacks so far this season.

Last year, he nearly broke the NFL sacks record with 22

“I think I’m a different player from week to week or year to year, just trying to build and correct mistakes,” Allen said. “Mentally, you learn to rush smarter. When you are younger, you are guessing. But I’ve always been a leverage, technique guy. I’m never going to get away from the base of what I do. I believe (in using) hips, hands and feet and out-leveraging and out-working the guy in front of me.”

Dave Boling of The News Tribune writes that fellow teammates are excited to see what rookie receiver Jermaine Kearse can do, now that he’s been elevated from the practice squad to the active roster: “He’s a young guy who is going to be really good,” Seattle receiver Golden Tate said. “From Day One he showed what he could do and hasn’t made many of those rookie mistakes. He has some wiggle, and is a strong guy with great hands.”

Art Thiel of Sportspressnw.com writes that although talented, Seattle’s defense is young and prone to being fooled. Thiel:“The quality numbers put up early masked the Seahawks’ weakness that becomes more obvious as offensive coordinators learn to plot against the Seahawks’ hyper-aggressive front and big cornerbacks.”

Danny O’Neil of the Seattle Times notes that although the schedule appears to get easier for the Seahawks, the combined winning record of Seattle’s last eight opponents is better than the first eight. The combined winning record of opponents for the first eight games is 30-31, while the combined winning record for the last eight games is 34-27.

ESPN’s Kevin Seifert says that the Vikings may have made a mistake in letting Sidney Rice go in free agency in this video link. Seifert believes Minnesota had concerns about Rice’s injury history.

Clare Farnsworth of Seahawks.com gives us the tale of the tape between Minnesota’s Adrian Peterson and Seattle’s Marshawn Lynch in the battle between the top two running backs in the league.

Lindsay Jones of USA Today writes that Pete Carroll shot down South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier’s notion that Alabama would be favored against some NFL teams. “The falsehood is to think that could ever take place. It isn’t even close,” Carroll said Wednesday before a Seahawks practice. “Alabama has a great team, and Nick (Saban) is a fantastic coach. But when you match up the interior lines against a regular NFL team, on either side of the ball, it wouldn’t even be close.”

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Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

Hoping Kearse can contribute more than just special teams ; he had some crucial drops while playing for the Dawgs – Rice saying he has the best hands on the team is encouraging , lets hope he can hang on to a couple and make some plays . He has the talent , no question ..

ON the contrary, from what I saw–and from what Carrol has said–Kearse grabbed every opportunity in preseason games he was given with both feet and hands, and made plays. Remember the 30 some yarder down the seam?! The guy can run the slant well too–something we need to see a lot more of to help Wilson move the chains without risking a pick.

Kearse is a prototypical FL, but is quick enough and versatile enough to play Slot as well, and he will help on Special Teams. I love this kid, and I for one think he’s gonna be one of our top 3 WR’s next year. Im not sure if Baldwin or Tate will fall off, but likely one of them will; Baldwin has been snakebit by injury this year just as in college. I hope that doesnt continue.

If Allen is against Okung, and he gets going early, I predict three holds and 2 false starts on our LT. Right side, probably worse if Allen gets ramped up early.

As much as I’d like to see us run away with this, I see a 24-23, 27-24 type of game coming. Here’s hoping for shutting down AP (which means less than 4 ypc), and turning the Viks’ one dimensional in which Ponder can do nothing.

Spurrier brought his shotgun baby spread offense to Washington and averaged 40 points a game in the preseason and everyone who knew football was just saying “whatever”. Enter regular season and he gets destroyed and back to college he goes.

Since when does Spurrier become Nick Sabans and Alabamas personal spokesperson? Tell him to just shut it.

I bet a handful of AAA teams could beat the M’s. That’s a bad comparison.

mojo, it’s IMPOSSIBLE to prove either way, but you’re smoking crack if you thin there are any AAA teams better than the M’s. Are there some that could beat them in a game? For sure! I seriously doubt any could win 2 out of 3 much less 3 out of 5. That was MY point. Any team can win on a GIVEN day. That wasn’t the point!!!!!!!!!!!!

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